BlackBerry Ltd. on Friday showed its cost-cutting continues to pay off, but Chief Executive John Chen’s record as a turnaround expert remains on the line as the smartphone maker’s quarterly revenue fell well short of expectations.

Mr. Chen assumed the top job at BlackBerry a little more than a year ago, after reviving the fortunes of software maker Sybase Inc. and selling the California company to SAP SE in 2010 for $5.8 billion. Mr. Chen is aiming for similar success at BlackBerry, first by returning the smartphone maker...